rencontrevsrencontrentWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: rencontre is a noun, rencontrent is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rencontre” is a noun and “rencontrent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#590
“rencontre” frequency rank
#7,364
“rencontrent” frequency rank
7954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rencontre rencontrent
Definition Hasard, occasion qui fait trouver fortuitement une personne, une chose. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de rencontrer.

Same sound, different letters: rencontre vs rencontrent

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. rencontre runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCCV) against rencontrent's 11 (CVCCVCCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
rencontre
11 ch
rencontrent

Same sound, different spelling - rencontre / rencontrent

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: rencontre and rencontrent carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁɑ̃.kɔ̃tʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “rencontre” sits inside “rencontrent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rencontre is recorded at frequency rank #590, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɑ̃.kɔ̃tʁ\. rencontrent is at rank #7,364, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁɑ̃.kɔ̃tʁ\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 7954, this pair ranks #421,594 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rencontre vs rencontrent

Shared letters: cenort. Private to "rencontre": -. Private to "rencontrent": -.

"rencontre" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCCV  ·  "rencontrent" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rencontre ← erncontre · recnontre · renccontre · rencnotre · renconntre · renconrte · renconter · rencontrre
  • rencontrent ← erncontrent · recnontrent · renccontrent · rencnotrent · renconntrent · renconrtent · renconternt · rencontrennt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rencontre" and "rencontrent" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rencontre" is a noun and "rencontrent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "rencontre" vs "rencontrent" - which ranks higher?
"rencontre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #590 in our French list, against #7,364 for "rencontrent". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "rencontre" / "rencontrent". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rencontre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rencontrent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #421,594 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rencontre" and "rencontrent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rencontrent vs rencontrèrent". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #421,594 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list